Bo Abra believes he couldn't be in a better place as he chases his rugby dream - a dream that is tantalisingly close, but thanks to coronavirus has at the same time probably never felt so far away.
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The former Pirate has been training with the Brumbies since the start of the pre-season and loving "every minute of it". Until a few weeks ago anyway, when coronavirus, ala David Pocock, seemingly pilfered his hopes of making his Super Rugby debut this season and forced him to train in virtual isolation.
As a young player trying to prove himself Abra acknowledges it isn't ideal but he reconciles that he is "in the best spot I believe I possibly could be at the moment".
He admits he constantly has to pinch himself when he walks into training.
"To be mingling with these guys, training with them, socialising with them, it's definitely been an eye-opener for me and I've learnt so much," he said.
"Moving down here has been honestly a dream come true and I wish I did it sooner."
As a front-rower, Abra knows how fortunate he is as far as mentors at the Brumbies, and has been like a sponge soaking up whatever he can from the likes of Allan Ala'alatoa, Scott Sio, James Slipper and Folau Fainga'a.
A loosehead by trade, he has also started mastering the craft of tighthead.
Abra said it just started with a conversation with a couple of coaches.
"I had a think about it and mentioned it to the forwards coach (Ruaidhri Murphy) and he sort of seemed pretty keen and then [head coach] Dan (McKellar) was also quite keen as well," he said.
"It's quite handy being able to cover both sides of the scrum at the moment."
"Hopefully for next year and future years I can put my hand up for tighthead."
For now though all he can do is train hard and ensure that when they do get the green light he is ready to go.
Abra admits he still hasn't really got his head around it all.
"It feels like I'm on holidays or something and I'm just keeping fit," he said.
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After initially being split into groups of five, they are now training in pairs. He has been teamed up with rising hooker Connal McInerney.
They are able to fill the day pretty well, but Abra concedes it is slowly getting harder and harder.
"When we were training in fives it was quite good, we were motivating each other and it wasn't too bad, but now it's quite challenging just to get the motivation up to keep training and we don't even know what we're training for just yet," he said.
"The only thing that's got us all through it is just each other. All the boys have realised that if we put the hard work in now when we do start playing rugby again we will know that nothing can really stand in our way."
"It's going to make us very strong as a group."
In between training Abra, who this time last year preparing with the Junior Wallabies for their World Cup assault, is consuming as much rugby as he can.
"I'm watching as much rugby as I can, like the old games - watching them and analysing them," he said.
He is also reading a lot and just trying to keep everything clean.
